CEO confidence sets low

It’s not just the little guy who’s depressed about prospects for the economy. The Conference Board said CEO confidence as measured by its quarterly survey fell 16 points in the fourth quarter to 24, the lowest level it’s hit since the survey started in 1976.

The fourth quarter report marked only the second sub-30 reading in the survey’s history. The first came in the second quarter of 1980 when the measure hit 29. (It’s one of those assessments where a 50 score is neutral. Anything below 50 reflects more negative responses than positive.)

Lynn Franco, director of the board’s Consumer Research Center, said the erosion in confidence levels is an outgrowth of “the rapid and severe deterioration in economic conditions experienced in the final months of 2008.”

It’s not just the little guy who’s depressed about prospects for the economy. The Conference Board said CEO confidence as measured by its quarterly survey fell 16 points in the fourth quarter to 24, the lowest level it’s hit since the survey started in 1976.

The fourth quarter report marked only the second sub-30 reading in the survey’s history. The first came in the second quarter of 1980 when the measure hit 29. (It’s one of those assessments where a 50 score is neutral. Anything below 50 reflects more negative responses than positive.)

Lynn Franco, director of the board’s Consumer Research Center, said the erosion in confidence levels is an outgrowth of “the rapid and severe deterioration in economic conditions experienced in the final months of 2008.”

She also said CEO’s are “extremely pessimistic” about the outlook for the first half of this year. The survey’s reading showed 11 percent of the business chiefs expected economic conditions to improve in the next six months. In the third quarter, about 20 percent foresaw improvement.

So if misery loves company, it should be feeling pretty good about now.